The declassified JFK files have at least one great detail for conspiracy theorists
Following yesterday’s release of more than 2,000 previously classified files relating to the JFK assassination, reporters and conspiracy theory junkies across the country have been poring over the documents trying to find something to confirm the public’s suspicions that not everything was up to snuff. For the most part, the revelations have been disappointing. With the exception of some suspicious comments made by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and a confirmation of the CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro, there just doesn’t seem to be much there there. That is, until you hear the story about a little periodical in Britain.
According to the FBI file above, a reporter at Cambridge News, a local newspaper in Cambridge, England, received an anonymous call on November 22, 1963— the day of President Kennedy’s assassination—informing them they should “call the American embassy in London for some big news.” What makes this mysterious call more than just a well-timed anonymous tip is that it occurred at 18:05 GMT, nearly half an hour before JFK was shot. For hardcore believers out there, this could be the smoking gun, so to speak, that proves someone knew something before it all went down.
“The Cambridge reporter had never received a call of this kind before and MI-5 state that he is known to them as a sound and loyal person,” reads a memo from CIA chief James Angleton, which then quickly undercuts the importance of the call by saying, “similar anonymous phone calls of a strangely coincidental nature have been received by persons in the U.K. over the past year.”
So, while this is certainly definitive proof that something weird happened, there’s no clear conclusion about the assassination that can be drawn. It just raises too many questions. Why would the tipster wait until minutes before the assassination to call? Why would they call Cambridge News, a local paper in another country that doesn’t even have national circulation? Why didn’t they just come out and say, “It was two shooters on the grassy knoll, you idiot!” and get it over with?
Unfortunately, we won’t know more until the CIA releases the remaining confidential files six months from now, and even then, who knows what bits of truth will be left un-redacted. But if these next shocking bits of intel discovered by two dedicated Twitter users are any indication, we’re in for a wild ride: