The Trump administration has begun releasing unredacted material related to the 1963 assassination of former US president John F Kennedy, a case which even after all these years continues to feed conspiracy theories.
While on big revelations are expected from these papers but some statements attributed to former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Gary Underhill in these papers will likely re-fan some of these theories.
The release of initial tranche of electronic copies of more than 80,000 papers into the National Archives website fulfils Donald Trump’s poll promise of more transparency about the JFK’s killing.
The documents released late on March 18 mention Gary Underhill, a former CIA agent. The documents claim that Underhill was found dead less than six months after he alleged CIA's involvement in Kennedy's assassination.
"A small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination," document quote him as saying. Kennedy was shot during a visit to Dallas on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald, a Marine veteran and self-professed Marxist who defected to the Soviet Union and later returned to the US.
The documents said the day after the assassination, Underhill left Washington in a hurry and took refuge with friends in New Jersey.
Who was Garry Underhill?
The documents say that Underhill served as an intelligence agent during World War II and was recognised as an expert on limited warfare and small arms.
He was a researcher and writer on military affairs, and many in the Pentagon brass knew him on a first-name basis. He was on good terms with high-ranking CIA officials, the documents revealed.
He was found “shot to death” on May 8, 1964 and the cause of death was listed as suicide, the files say. However, the files reveal that the suicide angle to Underhill's death is “by no means convincing”.
“His body was found by a writing collaborator, Asher Brynes of The New Republic. He had been shot behind the left ear, and an automatic pistol was under his left side. ‘Odd’, says Brynes, "because Underhill was right-handed.”
What Underhill revealed?
The documents cite Underhill as saying that "a small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination”.
“The day after the assassination, Gary Underhill left Washington in a hurry. Late in the evening, he showed up at the home of friends in New Jersey. He was very agitated," the documents say.
“A small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination, he confided, and he was afraid for his life and probably would have to leave the country. Less than six months later Underhill was found shot to death in his Washington apartment. The coroner ruled it suicide."
According to the papers, Underhill described the group as "a corrupt element every bit as ruthless — and more efficient—than the mafia."
The phrase “small clique” aligns with theories of some researchers who argue that specific CIA officers, who were involved in anti-Fidel Castro operations may have had motives to target Kennedy. In 1961, Kennedy authorized CIA's Cuban Project which was aimed at overthrowing the Cuba's Fidel Castro government.
The documents further mention that Kennedy supposedly got “wind that something was going on” and was killed before he could “blow the whistle on it.”
JFK Assassination
John F Kennedy was shot dead while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, on November 22, 1963. Police apprehended 24-year-old Oswald, who had taken up a sniper's position on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building.
A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, set up by former President Lyndon B Johnson, concluded that Oswald planned the killing alone and there was no other conspiracy.
Underhill’s statement will likely raise doubts about the commission’s conclusion.
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