Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB)

One of the millions of formerly-secret pages declassified under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.
One of the millions of formerly-secret pages declassified under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

Oliver Stone’s movie JFK included a trailer which noted the massive number of government documents still locked away from the public. An ensuing firestorm of letter-writing and phone-calling led Congress to pass the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. This law set up a process for speedily declassifying the government files on the Kennedy case.

The Assassination Records Review Board was set up as an independent body to oversee the process. During the 1990s, the ARRB managed the release of millions of pages of formerly-secret records from the FBI, CIA, Warren Commission, House Select Committee on Assassinations, and various other government bodies. It also collected records from private citizens. The ARRB did not re-investigate the JFK assassination, though in its search for records it did conduct interviews of CIA personnel, autopsy participants, and others.

What's in all the files declassified by the ARRB? Much of the materials simply fill in the details of various aspects of the case and its larger context. But amid the haystacks, those studying the records have found a number of "bombshells" in the areas of the medical evidence, Oswald's trip to Mexico, the Garrison investigation, and more. One example from many: in 1997 the ARRB interviewed the government employee who developed JFK's autopsy photographs after his murder. Shown the official set of autopsy photos in the National Archives, she disputed each picture in turn, finally telling the ARRB "the views that we produced at the Photographic Center are not included." more

RESOURCES:

Essays

Assassination Records Review Board, by JFK Lancer.

Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board, by John McAdams.

Bringing it All Together: The New Releases and How They Help Us Converge on the Heart of the Case, by Peter Dale Scott.

ARRB: Behind the Curtain, by Probe.

The Culture of the ARRB, by Doug Horne.

Doug Horne - Specifics in the Files, by John Kelin.

The Failures of the ARRB, by Douglas Horne.

FBI vs. ARRB: Heading Into Overtime, by Probe.

 

Documents

ARRB Final Report - Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board.

ARRB Medical Testimony - Transcript of interviews conducted in the mid-1990s with autopsy participants and others.

ARRB Master Set of Medical Exhibits - Exhibits to accompany the medical interviews, covering a wide range of medical evidence in the case.

ARRB 1995 Releases - Early declassifications of the Review Board, from 1995.

ARRB 1996 Releases - Early declassifications of the Review Board, from 1996.


Other Links

JFK Assassination Records Board Ends Work; Issues Final Report on washingtonpost.com.

The Records of the Assassination Record Review Board on National Archives' website.

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