So, he’s finally done it. What do these new documents tell us about that fateful day in Dallas? In 2025, That’s a big one—many people had been waiting years for this. The materials finally surfaced on March 18th, 2025.

While they don’t contain much information that wasn’t already known to the public, a few documents shed new light on Lee Harvey Oswald’s history with the Soviet Union. It has long been common knowledge that Oswald spent time in the USSR prior to the murder of President Kennedy. There have also been persistent rumors that he was affiliated with the KGB. One document appears to put that idea to rest.

Dated November 20th, 1991, the communique reveals that a KGB agent identified as Slava Nikkov went through five extensive files to see if Oswald had ever worked for the agency, then discussed his findings with American college professor Eie Smith. Nikkov believed that Oswald was not easily manipulated, which was a prerequisite for potential KGB agents at the time. Although Oswald was rigorously observed by Soviet agents, they concluded he offered no value to the organization. At one point, for example, they watched him practice shooting and deemed his skills subpar.

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The magic bullet
According to the Warren Commission, Oswald was the sole person responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963. Oswald took up a position on an upper floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. At around 12:30 p.m., the former U.S. Marine fired three shots at the president’s passing motorcade.

It was the third and final shot that struck Kennedy in the head and ultimately killed him. But the second bullet from Oswald’s rifle also did substantial damage as it tore through both the president and his riding companion, Texas Governor John Connally. The bullet entered Kennedy through his back and exited through his neck.

It then continued on, striking Connally near his armpit before moving through the governor’s chest and body, injuring his wrist and coming to rest in his thigh. This single round became infamous as the “magic bullet” because of the complex path it supposedly took through two men. The extraordinary trajectory fueled decades of speculation and conspiracy theories.

On the ground
Since 1960, Secret Service agent Clint Hill had been assigned to First Lady Jackie Kennedy’s security detail. He was present during the Dallas trip in November 1963. After hearing the first shot, he literally jumped into action, sprinting toward the presidential limousine.

Hill leapt onto the back of the car in a desperate attempt to shield the president and his wife. He was only inches away from John F. Kennedy when the fatal shot struck the president’s head. Hill forced a panicked Jackie Kennedy back into her seat, where she held her dying husband’s head in her lap.

Surveying the president’s devastating injuries, Hill quickly realized that Kennedy was unlikely to survive. According to his memoir, the first lady cried out, “Jack, Jack, what have they done to you?” For decades after the assassination, Hill carried an immense sense of guilt that the president had been killed on his watch. He developed a serious drinking problem, withdrew from his family, and even contemplated suicide. “I tried to do the best job I could,” he later said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.”

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Kennedy’s brace
President Kennedy had suffered from severe back problems for most of his adult life. He underwent multiple surgeries in an effort to alleviate his near‑constant pain. During public appearances, Kennedy often wore a back brace that functioned like a corset. It covered his hips and most of his back and was laced extremely tightly.

The brace was then wrapped in a constricting fabric bandage. This system held everything in place and limited his pain, but it also significantly restricted his movement. The corset prevented even natural, involuntary motions, and that limitation may have contributed to his death.

Kennedy was wearing the apparatus under his clothes as he rode through Dallas in the open limousine. After he was struck by the first bullet, his body likely would have slumped forward and fallen to the floor of the car if he had been unencumbered. Instead, the brace kept him upright, giving Lee Harvey Oswald a stable target and the opportunity to deliver the fatal head shot.

A lucky escape
When he heard the first shot ring out, Governor John Connally instantly sensed that something was terribly wrong. Sitting in front of the president, he looked back over his right shoulder to see if Kennedy was all right. He couldn’t clearly see the president’s condition, so he began to turn to his left.

At that moment, Oswald’s second bullet struck him. The round pierced one of Connally’s lungs and caused serious internal injuries. He required a four‑hour operation to remove the bullet and repair the damage. Ultimately, he made a full recovery.

However, things could have turned out far worse had he not turned when he did. The day after the shooting, attending physician Dr. Tom Shires told UPI, “If he had not turned, that bullet would have gone through the middle of his back and probably would have punctured his heart.”

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Collateral damage
Oswald obviously intended to shoot and kill President Kennedy that day, and he also wounded Governor Connally. But one more person nearly died as an unintended consequence of his actions. James Tague, a 27‑year‑old Dallas car salesman, arrived at Dealey Plaza just as the presidential motorcade passed through.

Running late for a lunch appointment, Tague parked his car and got out to see why the crowds had gathered. Seconds later, he heard a popping sound. At first, he thought it was a firecracker. Then he recognized the distinctive report of rifle shots—a second and a third.

“With those last two shots, I felt something sting me in the face,” he later told the BBC. He ran for cover behind a concrete pillar as the motorcade sped away. After speaking with two police officers who noticed blood on his face, Tague pieced together what had happened. He had been struck by a fragment of concrete curb, dislodged by one of Oswald’s bullets. “It’s hard to grasp today,” he said. “I’m still trying to grasp it.”

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The long demise
Contrary to popular belief, Kennedy did not die instantly in the car on Dealey Plaza. Instead, he endured a brief but harrowing decline—an experience that was especially traumatic for his wife. After the shooting, the driver of the presidential limousine raced toward Parkland Memorial Hospital.

Kennedy was rushed into emergency treatment, but his prognosis was grim from the outset. He arrived at the medical facility in what doctors described as “near the point of death.” Despite efforts to revive him, the president died on the operating table at Parkland. The time of death was recorded as 1:00 p.m., about 30 minutes after the shooting.

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Problem calls
As Kennedy was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the rest of the world struggled to comprehend what had just happened. “President Kennedy has been assassinated. It’s official now. The president is dead.” While many reacted with shock and grief, some responses were disturbingly bizarre.

Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy was treated, received a large number of prank phone calls. When the Army Signal Corps took control of the hospital’s outgoing phone lines, the switchboard operators were tasked with answering and logging all incoming calls. People phoned in from as far away as Europe, Australia, and South America.

Many callers demanded inside information, falsely claiming to be important officials. One woman, identifying herself only as “the underground,” said she was offering her supernatural powers to heal the president. Another caller told an operator that he planned to blow up her car. Some callers blamed Kennedy’s assassination on his support for the civil rights movement.

One boy managed to place three calls, reaching three different operators. Each time, he claimed to be Kennedy’s young son before bursting into laughter and hanging up. For the staff struggling with a real national emergency, the calls added a surreal and cruel layer to an already horrific day.

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Missing bullet
Secret Service agent Paul Landis was on Jackie Kennedy’s security detail at the time of the assassination. After witnessing the shooting and accompanying the president to the hospital, Landis went back to inspect the limousine. That’s when he noticed a spent bullet on the seat where Kennedy had been sitting.

Technically tampering with evidence, Landis picked up the bullet and slipped it into his pocket. When he entered the emergency room, he placed the bullet on the president’s stretcher, believing it should remain with the body as evidence. “I didn’t want that to disappear,” he later said. “It was an important piece of evidence.”

Landis was never interviewed by the Warren Commission and did not publicly disclose his actions for decades. He finally revealed the episode in his memoir, published in 2023. In the book, Landis claimed he had simply forgotten to mention it to anyone at the time, and that the memory only resurfaced many years later.

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The Zapruder tape
Virtually every serious investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy has used the same historical document as a starting point: a 26.6‑second segment of 8mm film shot by amateur photographer Abraham Zapruder. The footage graphically captures the president sustaining multiple gunshots to his head and neck. Today, it is considered one of the most recognizable pieces of film in history.

On November 22nd, 1963, Zapruder was standing on a concrete pedestal in Dealey Plaza, with a clear view of the presidential motorcade. He initially intended to film a simple home movie. When the shots rang out, however, his camera recorded a national tragedy.

“I saw the president lean over to Jacqueline,” Zapruder later told a reporter. “Then the second shot came and I saw his head open up, and I started yelling, ‘They killed him! They killed him!’ And I continued shooting until they went under the underpass.”

The traumatic sight left a deep psychological scar. “It’s left in my mind like a wound that heals up, but yet there’s a pain left as to what has happened,” he said. Zapruder’s camera was seized by the government and is now held in the National Archives. Although he was later given a new camera, he never again took pictures or operated a movie camera.

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Three hours of history
The events of November 22nd, 1963 loom large in American history. It was the first presidential assassination in more than 60 years and occurred during a period of relative peace and prosperity. Given its impact on the national psyche, it may be surprising how short the actual timeline was.

Air Force One landed at Dallas’s Love Field at 11:30 a.m. President Kennedy and the first lady were greeted by reporters and a large crowd. By 11:45 a.m., John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and their spouses had been loaded into open‑topped cars bound for downtown.

The motorcade reached Dealey Plaza at around 12:00 p.m., driving slowly through streets lined by more than 150,000 people eager to see the president. At 12:30 p.m., Oswald opened fire from the Texas School Book Depository, hitting Kennedy and Connally. Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m., one hour and three minutes after being shot.

Just 12 minutes after the official time of death, Oswald was arrested in a movie theater. At 2:38 p.m., aboard Air Force One on the return flight to Washington, D.C., Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president of the United States. From Kennedy’s arrival in Dallas to Johnson’s oath of office, barely more than three hours had passed.

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A grim milestone
“Did you kill the president?” reporters asked Oswald. “No, I’ve not been charged with that. In fact, nobody has said that to me yet,” he replied. Within hours of the shooting, Dallas police had arrested Oswald, and the legal system moved quickly. The next day, November 23rd, he was formally charged with the murders of President Kennedy and a Dallas police officer, J.D. Tippit.

On November 24th, Oswald was scheduled to be transferred from Dallas police headquarters to a more secure county jail. Officials and members of the media crowded into the basement to witness the move. As officers escorted Oswald through the tight corridor, local nightclub owner Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and shot him at point‑blank range.

Oswald died of his wounds about two hours later. His killing was notable not only because it silenced the lone suspect in the president’s murder, but also because millions of Americans saw it happen in real time. Television crews were broadcasting the transfer live across the nation. Oswald’s death is widely regarded as the first televised murder in history, marking a grim and unprecedented moment in American public life.