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WHO REALLY KILLED JFK?

Now the JFK files have been released by Trump, what are the top 10 revelations from the secret docs?

SENSATIONAL details around the assassination of JFK have started to emerge after a tranche of documents were released last night.

The never-before-seen revelations have detailed how the FBI was keeping tabs on Lee Harvey Oswald - and how Russia reacted to the 1963 killing of the President. Here are some of the most explosive findings so far from the 2,800 pages of secret material...

 President Kennedy in the limousine in Dallas, Texas, on Main Street, seconds before the assassination
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President Kennedy in the limousine in Dallas, Texas, on Main Street, seconds before the assassinationCredit: Reuters

Lee Harvey Oswald had secret meetings with KGB agent before the assassination

Lee Harvey Oswald met with a KGB agent responsible for assassinations two months before JFK’s killing.

The communist had secretly met with Russian spies at the Soviet embassy, before carrying out the shooting of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

The FBI files revealed Oswald met with Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov, a senior KGB agent who was known to have worked for the KGB’s 13th department – which was responsible for assassinations – in Mexico City.

 John F Kennedy was killed in Dallas in 1963
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John F Kennedy was killed in Dallas in 1963Credit: AP1959

The FBI knew about the meetings and had been trying to track Oswald

In another document, it was sensationally revealed that the FBI learned of the meeting between Oswald and the KGB spy on October 1 of that year - more than a month before the killing that shocked the world.

The documents also show that FBI agents were grilled by a Senate committee over their failure to stop Oswald after his six-day Mexico visit.

But the documents also reveal the FBI were trying to track Oswald before the assassination after Cuban sources said he was of interest.

 Lee Harvey Oswald after his arrest
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Lee Harvey Oswald after his arrestCredit: Getty - Contributor

Oswald was seen as a 'neurotic maniac' by Soviet leaders - who worried they would be blamed for the assassination

The Soviet Union thought they would get the blame for putting up Lee Harvey Oswald - who they described as a "neurotic maniac" and disloyal - to assassinating US President John F Kennedy.

The shock 1963 assassination led to fears from the Soviet Union that a panicked US military would blame them - and that "without leadership, some irresponsible general in the United States might launch a missile at the Soviet Union."

It further believed that the President's shooting was part of a "well-organized conspiracy", with the document adding that officials of the communist party were "convinced that the assassination was not the deed of one man."

 The bombshell document was one of 2,800 JFK related classified documents released on Thursday
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The bombshell document was one of 2,800 JFK related classified documents released on Thursday

A Brit newspaper received a tip off that something was going to happen in the US

A reporter at Cambridge News told cops he received the call shortly after 6pm on November 22, 1963 - 25 minutes before Kennedy was shot.

Writing to the director of the FBI just days after the assassination, CIA deputy director (plans), James Angleton relayed information passed to him by MI5.

He wrote: “The caller said only that the Cambridge News reporter should call the American Embassy in London for some big news and then hung up.”

After news broke about Kennedy’s killing, the shocked reporter told Brit cops about the chilling call.

The document continues: “The important point is that the call was made, according to MI5 calculations, about 25 minutes before the president was shot.”

The FBI warned Dallas police there was a threat to kill Oswald after the President's assassination

Another document revealed a transcript of a November 24, 1963 conversation with J. Edgar Hoover, who was FBI director at the time.

Hoover said the FBI informed cops of a death threat against Oswald the night before he was killed - but police did not act on it.

Hoover wrote that a call had been received from a man claiming to be part of a committee organised to kill Oswald, writing: "We at once notified the chief of police and he assured us Oswald would be given sufficient protection.

"This morning we called the chief of police again warning of the possibility of some effort against Oswald and again he assured us adequate protection would be given.

"However this was not done."

 Lee Harvey Oswald is shot by Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby
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Lee Harvey Oswald is shot by Dallas night club owner Jack RubyCredit: Getty - Contributor


WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR


Oswald was heard speaking broken Russian to a KGB officer

Lee Harvey Oswald was heard in an intercepted phone call to be speaking in broken Russian to a KGB officer.

Oswald had called the Soviet embassy on October 1, with the document stating: "(Oswald was) speaking broken Russian, stating the above and asking the guard who answered the phone whether there was ‘anything new concerning the telegram to Washington’."

Oswald was heard discussing 'Big Bird'

According to the records, Oswald and Jack Ruby met in a Florida airport as part of a group heading to Cuba to "cut sugar cane" before the assassination.

A report was made that Oswald had approached Ruby, asking "Have you heard anything from the Big Bird yet?"

It has widely been believed that Ruby had not known Oswald before shooting him in the abdoment at point blank range on November 24, 1963.

Ruby, a shadowy figure from Chicago, was convicted of murder in 1964.

A Dallas cop was claimed to be Kennedy's true killer

A Dallas cop was JFK's real assassin, an internal document dated five months after the US president's death suggested.

According to the document detailing the conspiracy theory, JD Tippit - who was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald around 45 minutes after Kennedy’s assassination – was the real trigger man, not Oswald.

 This document reveals an informant's claim that Officer Tippit was the killer
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This document reveals an informant's claim that Officer Tippit was the killer

The CIA hatched bizarre assassination plots to kill Fidel Castro

The US had a series of outlandish plans of how to take out the cigar-smoking revolutionary.

The plots included using Castro's hobby of skin diving, also known as free diving, by giving him a poisoned suit.

Another bizarre plan involved using a "midget submarine" to place an exploding shell in an area of the sea where Castro liked to dive.

 Fidel Castro was known to be a keen diver, with the CIA revealed to have considered using the hobby as a way to target him
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Fidel Castro was known to be a keen diver, with the CIA revealed to have considered using the hobby as a way to target himCredit: Getty - Contributor

The FBI was warned about Bobby Kennedy's relationship with Marilyn Monroe

A letter warned of plans to release an explosive book that claimed Robert F Kennedy was involved in Marilyn Monroe's death.

Addressed to both the then-Attorney General Kennedy and the Director of the FBI, the memo reveals contents of an upcoming book entitled "The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe".

 A memo sent to Bobby Kennedy warns of plans for a book alleging he was behind Marilyn Monroe's death
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A memo sent to Bobby Kennedy warns of plans for a book alleging he was behind Marilyn Monroe's deathCredit: �Julien'sAuctions
 The report which states that Oswald met a KGB agent two months before the JFK killing
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The report which states that Oswald met a KGB agent two months before the JFK killing
 Kennedy moments before his assassination
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Kennedy moments before his assassinationCredit: Getty - Contributor
 JFK was shot dead on November 22, 1963 , in Dallas in Texas
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JFK was shot dead on November 22, 1963 , in Dallas in TexasCredit: AP:Associated Press
Archive video from buildup to and assassination of US President John F. Kennedy - more commonly known as JFK

President Donald Trump released the hotly-anticipated files but has withheld thousands of others, saying he had "no choice" due to "national security reasons".

President Trump said in an official statement about the highly anticipated files that he had to redact some of the material or risk doing "irreversible harm to our nation's security."

He said: "The American public expects - and deserves - its government to provide as much access as possible to the (records)... so that the people may finally be fully informed about all aspects of this pivotal event.

"Executive departments and agencies have proposed to me that certain information should continue to be redacted because of national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns.

"I have no choice - today - but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our nation's security."

White House officials said the FBI and CIA made the most requests within the government to withhold some information.

The officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, described Trump as reluctant to agree to agency requests to hold back documents but in the end felt he had no choice but to agree to their demands.

 Donald Trump tweeted his support for the release of the JFK files
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Donald Trump tweeted his support for the release of the JFK filesCredit: PA:Press Association
Video examines theory that Russia's KGB had a role in assassination of JFK

"The president wants to ensure there is full transparency here and is expecting that the agencies do a better job in reducing any conflicts within the redactions and get this information out as quickly as possible," one official said.

After the thousands of historic documents were officially declassified, furious Twitter users lashed out branding them "illegible."

One Twitter user, Robyn Hammontree, quickly took to the social media site to complain: "The main thing I’ve learned so far from the JFK docs is that there was no need to classify them because the writing is illegible."

The files are vast in number and scope, covering everything from FBI directors' memos to interviews with members of the public in Dallas who came forward trying to provide clues after that singularly unforgettable moment in US history.

Some date into the 1970s and many are stamped with "top secret".

President Trump on Saturday confirmed that he would allow the documents to be made public.

US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in November 22 in 1963 as he travelled in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza.

Thousands of books, articles, TV shows and films have explored the idea that Kennedy's assassination was the result of an elaborate conspiracy.

Historians believe that the secret files can shed light on the assassination of President Kennedy.

No one knows for sure who killed JFK but the official version is that the culprit was Lee Harvey Oswald.

 Lee Harvey Oswald is shot at point blank range by Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby
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Lee Harvey Oswald is shot at point blank range by Dallas night club owner Jack RubyCredit: Getty - Contributor
 JFK's wife Jackie with their two children Caroline and John Junior
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JFK's wife Jackie with their two children Caroline and John JuniorCredit: Hulton Archive - Getty
Unseen JFK film

Shortly after, Oswald, a 24-year-old self-proclaimed Marxist, was arrested in a nearby cinema after apparently shooting Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit.

He denied shooting anybody claiming to reporters that he was a "patsy".

Two days after the assassination, Oswald was gunned down by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being escorted through the basement of the Dallas police station.

The Warren Commission in 1964 reported that Oswald had been the lone gunman, and another congressional probe in 1979 found no evidence to support the theory that the CIA had been involved.

But some say this was a cover-up.

Conspiracy theories include a CIA plot, a mafia hit job and a covert operation by the Vice President Lyndon Johnson.

Roger Stone, a close Trump ally, advanced the unsubstantiated and widely disdained theory that Lyndon Johnson, who became president upon Kennedy's death, was involved in the killing.

He believes official killer Oswald was just a stooge - and instead the assassination was masterminded by Johnson and the CIA, which feared JFK was too soft on communist Cuba.



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