Five unanswered questions that still remain over JFK’s assassination

The FBI announced the discovery of around 2,400 lost files relating to the assassination of John F Kennedy on Tuesday, sparking a fresh wave of speculation about the former US president. Government agents unearthed the documents after Donald Trump signed an executive order in January for all of the files related to the 1963 shooting to be declassified shortly after taking office. It comes as Anna Paulina Luna, the head of a new Task Force dedicated to the Declassification of Federal Secrets, spoke in support of a conspiracy theory that there were ‘two shooters’ involved in the assassination – contradicting the official account that lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was solely responsible for the killing.

A 2023 poll published by Gallup revealed 65% of Americans believe others were involved in the slaying, while only 29% of Americans are sure former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was working alone. About 11% believe the Mafia or other organized crime elements are responsible for the killing. While this theory has long been popular, it has lost traction in recent years. Meanwhile, 38% of respondents believe some part of the US federal government is responsible for the president’s death; a belief which has steadily grown over the years, increasing by 13 points since 2013.

Despite numerous investigations, including the Warren Commission, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), and countless books, documentaries, and studies, many questions regarding the assassination remain unanswered. Here are the key mysteries professional and amateur sleuths alike still seek closure on:. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video.

Up Next. The official narrative holds that former US marine Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, firing three shots from the Texas School Book Depository. However, inconsistencies in the evidence have led many to question this conclusion. For example, the timing of the shots and the trajectory of the bullets do not align perfectly with the physical evidence. Witnesses in Dealey Plaza reported hearing shots from multiple directions, and the infamous ‘grassy knoll’ theory suggests a second shooter.

The Zapruder film, which captures the assassination, shows Kennedy’s head jerking backward, implying a shot from the front—contradicting the official story of Oswald firing from behind. Oswald’s background further complicates the picture. He defected to the Soviet Union in 1959, lived there for several years, and returned to the U.S. with a Russian wife. His connections to pro- and anti-Castro groups in the years leading up to the assassination have raised questions about whether he was a lone actor or part of a larger plot.

If Oswald was not the lone gunman, who else was involved, and what was their motive? The lack of a clear answer has kept this question at the forefront  of the JFK assassination debate for decades. Oswald was reportedly on the radar of both the CIA and FBI prior to the assassination, and both agencies have been criticised for failing to monitor him more closely prior to the shooting. The CIA were at the time engaged in numerous covert operations aimed at overthrowing the government in Cuba, such as embarking on a failed ground invasion of the Bay of Pigs and attempting to assassinate Fidel Castro on a number of occasions.

JFK’s reluctance to fully support these operations, along with his handling of the Cuban missile crisis, angered certain factions within the CIA, which conspiracy theorists believe created a motive for involvement in his assassination. Similarly, the FBI’s handling of evidence and its relationship with Oswald have raised questions about whether the bureau was complicit in a cover-up. J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at the time, was known for his intense dislike of the Kennedy brothers, particularly Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and the bureau’s failure to share critical information with the Warren Commission has fueled suspicions that they may have been hiding something.

The true extent of the CIA and FBI’s involvement—or lack thereof—remains one of the most contentious aspects of the case, and one of the most tightly guarded secrets regarding the assassination. Jack Ruby’s murder of Oswald two days after the assassination has been a focal point of conspiracy theories. Ruby, a nightclub owner with ties to organized crime, shot Oswald point-blank on live television as he was being transferred from police custody, reportedly out of grief for the slain president.

Ruby was charged with murder but died from cancer before he could stand trial, and his connections to the local mob have led many to believe he was silencing Oswald to prevent him from revealing a larger conspiracy. Ruby’s trial and subsequent death from cancer while in prison further complicated efforts to understand his motives, which was further complicated by the fact that one of doctors who treated him in prison, Louis Jolyon West, gained infamy for his work with MKULTRA- the CIA’s infamous interrogation, hypnosis, and mind control program.