Bullet. American history tv. This weekend only on cspan 3. Since july of 2017, thousands of documents related to the john f. Kennedy assassination. Many documents had been with held. For alleged National Security reasons. The document releases are mandated by the president john f. Kennedy records collection act of 1992. And will continue into 2018. Though some of the documents contain redaxs. Up next, from 2014. Our visit to the National Archives to learn about the asags nation records and see the iconic art facts. Such as the rifle. The so called magic bullet. And the original film of the assassination. Our guide is Martha Wagner murphy. Who manages the staff. The president john f. Kennedy assassination records collection was created because of the president john f. Kennedy records collection act of 1992. So a short history. Since time of the assassination theres been numerous official investigations. Starting with the commission and congressional investigations. And then the early 90s this was a movie. By oliver stone. And at the end of the movie he made a point of stay saying that the records are open and available. It was with pleasure and pride appear before the subcommittee today. To urge the passage of house joint resolution 454. Quote to provide for the expeditious disclosure of records of the assassination of john f. Kennedy. The purpose was to make sure all the records considered assassination related were collected. Sent to the National Archives and open to the greatest extent possible. The there was an independent agency created. Temporary. Whose job was make sure the agencies were complying with this. And also to determine make sure the records were open to the greatest extent possible. In response to that act we created the collection. And the collection has been here at the National Archives ever since. We estimate theres about 5 million text pages. Pieces of paper. We have photographs and some phones, audio recordings and the like. If the public or researchers want access to these items how does that work . For most of the text records all they need to do is come here and ask to have access. There are various finding aids available on our web site. Archives. Gov. In response to the act. Which actually the data base entries were created by the agencies Still Holding the records. The National Archives created the data base itself. And all of that day ta was transferred here. And we made that available to the public. And so you can search on an i tlechl the records in the collection. And if you see something youd like to see you can come here and ask to see it. On our business hours. When were available. The box will be pulled and made available in our research room. Here we have three items. Which you requested. Unlike the physical art facts we were able to accommodate you because they are basically text documents. Not physical. So the first item that you requested was Commission Exhibit 381 a. This time here. This is a bus transfer which was found in the pocket of Lee Harvey Os wald after he was arrested. And was obtained by the Dallas Police. And given to the fbi and became a Commission Exhibit. Of the Warren Commission. The second item that you requested is Lee Harvey Os walds address book. A custom made container. And again this is acid free. This is they have this handy little lift. So you can get it out without having to pull. Theres a Commission Exhibit number of on there. 18. And it has all of his handwritten items including a map. Addresses and telephone numbers. Which you would expect. The final item is a map. Of mechanixico city. He made a trip to mexico city. Prior to the assassination. And brought this map home. And this was acquired by Dallas Police. And the fbi and the Warren Commission. This side of the map theres a smaller map with tourist spots. Which are identified on this side. As you can tell certain things were circled. It was like that when we received it. Obviously we wouldnt add anything like that. The backside is larger map. Again with several items circled. I have found in secondary sources people have written that these some of the items circled were actually the embassies of cuba. And the ussr. I have not found the primary documentation of that. Specifically what is circled on here. The context for these all documented well in the Warren Commission report. In order for something to be become a Commission Exhibit it would have been discussed in one of the testimony that was taken by the Warren Commission. Or would have been referenced in the report. 50 years later are there still classified items and how does the process work . That was taken care of in the act itself. The assassination records review board which was the independent agency had a unique power. They were had the capability of over ruling the agency. Even on classification. The only appeal was to the president of the united states. So while the review board was in business they made a final determination on the records. We found little reason to continue to protect these records. In fact many of them we found really should not have been protected during the 1960s. We have to remember the era in which this occurred. In which National Security concerns were heightened in cause the sealing of the important files. However there were a few. Theres still some. That were remained classified in part or full. If you read the act it says that 25 years after the passing of the act everything must be made available. So that will be 2017. October. So were already actually gearing up a process to start getting the withdrawn material. Processed and ready for release. What particular challenges does this collection present to the archives that other collections might not . Well one of the challenges is that we have a lot of physical art facts. Things other than paper. We have sort of the donts of the boarding oswald was living, even things like his flipflops and odd things like that here at the National Archives. And its actually fairly usual. The archives does have some other artifacts but were mostly a paper agency. Because of the huge interest in this we have numerous people who want to have access to these materials and so theres a tension between conservation and access. So thats probably been our biggest challenge and the way we have addressed that is by trying to provide as much access as we can through still pictures and film of the most popular artifacts that are in the collection. So that people can see them and have their Research Questions answered without actually looking at the actual physical artifact. Because every time we have to make an actual item available, we are risking a bit the conservation of the item. And so thats why for the press we have provided b roll video of the artifacts themselves which we did prior to the 50th anniversary. So here we in one of our conservation labs with one of our conservetors. And she is going to show us which is fbi exhibit b1, which is oswalds wallet, including the contents. Im going to answer a question that a lot of people have which is what is the staining that is on portions of those items. That is from the fingerprint chemical that was used by the fbi to try obtain fingerprints. It ended up staining the artifact itself. So i know some people think it looks like blood. It is not blood. This would have been in oswalds possession when he was arrested but not in his possession when he was shot. And here shes laying out some of the items that were found which we have encapsulated in my lar, the conserve tiefrs here at the National Archives. And some of the things that were in the wallet were things like his Social Security card, Selective Service notice, service id because he was in the marine corps at one time. A fair play for cube abcommunity identification card, that was an organization that he belonged to. Lets see what else is interesting in here . Other kinds of id cards, Public Library card. And so all of these are just the contents of a wallet just like would you have in your own wall wallet whatever you have right now. This is something we wouldnt normally make available to researchers and thats why we have filmed it. Mostly because of the wallet itself, even more than the contents. You there can see we had some photographs that the woman in the picture is his wife, marina. And dlu see his marine corps photograph as well. So next exhibit that our conservator is showing you here is fbi exhibit k 51, which was the camera used by mr. Zapruda to take a very famous film of the assassination which probably most people have seen. Its in a case, or we have a case to it which you can see right there. As you can see, shes putting gloves on. We generally dont use gloves with paper items but with the artifacts its common practice to wear a cotton glove. So weve retained the case but we do not stort camera in a case. And what you can see here is the acid free box that the camera is stored in. And the material thats inside the box to protect it as well. So here you will see that on this label which is on the outside of the box, its a common means we have of identifying the item so that we can keep control of them. Youll see rg 272, that refers to the record group. Thats the record group for the records of the Warren Commission. And our records are arranged primarily here at the National Archives by record groups, which is the organization. These records are just like all the others. We have maintained them in the same manner. So the next item is the tshirt that oswald was wearing when he was shot. Again, it is part of the Warren Commission records. Youll see it says fbi exhibit because the fbi collected it first. And then it was transferred on to the Warren Commission and then eventually to the National Archives. I will say we have had the records of the Warren Commission well before the passing of the jfk act. And those records were about 90 , 98 open prior to the passing of the act. Those records have been open and available here at the National Archives for many years. So we have had these artifacts for a very long time as well. You will sometimes see on some of these artifacts that there are initials. Those initials were used as a means of documenting the transfer of custody from one organization to another, like Dallas Police on to the fbi, or between individuals within the fbi. And each one of these artifacts you could find textual documentation in our files that would tell you more about the significance of the artifacts youre seeing here. And again, this is the black sweater that oswald was wearing when he was shot. Again, we have our conservators have put these in acidfree boxes with acidfree tissue to preserve them. And any labeling that would have been on the materials when they came to us, we have preserved every artifact of the artifact. So these are all original labels. The National Archives would not have placed these labels on here. And finally, this is the shirt that oswald was wearing when he was shot. Of course, he was shot when he was in the custody of the Dallas Police, being moved from one place to another. And it was being filmed, so it was unusual. There was a lot of press available. The conservators here at the National Archives have experience in pretty much everything we need them to, but if necessary, they certainly will reach out to an expert. But they have all been their education, they have been trained to deal with multiple types of materials. And this item is Commission Exhibit 126. And it was a blue bag that was found in oswalds effects. It was picked up at his residence on north beckley street by Dallas Police officers. And so this was a tag that was affixed by them. So it says charge murder there. Right. And the thing to remember about the assassination, the time that kennedy was assassinated, it was not a federal crime to kill the president. And so had he gone on trial, he would have gone on trial for murder in texas. And so the Dallas Police were investigating that. So does the archives have to work had to work with the Dallas Police . No, because all these items were transferred to the fbi and then to the Warren Commission, who would have given it to the Commission Exhibit number, 126, and then finally, it came to the National Archives, but it was within the custody of the u. S. Federal government prior to transfer to us, because of course, National Archives has the records of the u. S. Federal government. We would not have the records of the Dallas Police, had they not transferred into that custody. This is the famous rifle, which oswald used to assassinate the president. You can see the custom box that was created by the National Archives conservation staff. Again, it has its own Commission Exhibit number. Which is Commission Exhibit 139. And we consider it part of the records of the Warren Commission. Because they were the organization who had custody last prior to transfer. So the next item is this blanket, and this is the blanket that was found in the house of ruth payne, and ruth payne was the woman with whom oswalds wife and daughter were staying at the time. And oswald had stored some of his effects, i believe, in their garage. And so it is believed he actually had wrapped the rifle in this blanket while it was in ms. Paynes garage and it was found after the assassination. Next were going to look at oswalds revolver. So after the president was assassinated, there was also a Police Officer who was killed. And he was killed by oswald. Using this revolver. And the interesting thing that i think a lot of people dont know is that oswald was initially arrested for the murder of officer tibbett. Not for the assassination of president kennedy, and it was only when he was in Police Custody that they put together that they were looking for someone who was missing from the texas gold book depository whose name was Lee Harvey Oswald, and oh, we already have him in custody because they had him in custody for the killing of tibbett. So this revolver is significant for several reasons. And this is the shirt that he was wearing when he was arrested. And here youll see our conservator handling it very carefully. So shes going to, i think, spend a little time and try to put it up on the form so you can see what it looks like. One of the interesting things about the shirt is that the fbi was able to find a piece of the fabric from the shirt actually attached to the rifle itself. And the rifle was found at the Texas School Book depository. So its just another piece of evidence that was used to connect oswald to the assassination. There you can see some initials. Actually put on the shirt itself. And everything that im telling you now, just know because of working with the records, so anyone could come in, they could read the Warren Commission report, and most everything im saying is actually in the Warren Commission report. They can look at the original fbi files. The lab files of the Lab Technicians and the scientists who worked with the fbi, did ballistics testing and fiber testing and all of that. Those records are all part of the collection, and someone could come in and look through them themselves. But even when you said earlier that thats the rifle that oswald used to kill the president , there were people listening to this who will say thats not true. Thats right. And so what im saying actually is, the opinion of the Warren Commission. And i guess i should state that i have no opinion one way or another on this, but thats how it is identified in our records, so thats how i will identify it to you. This is a gray zipper jacket. And the interesting thing, this also ties oswald to the murder of tibbett because according to the Warren Commission, this jacket was found sort of thrown, ditched, near where tibbett was killed. And people saw who they thought was oswald taken after the killing, so marina then, oswalds wife, verified this jacket was oswalds jacket. So if you read the Warren Commission report, they will give their opinion on this, but it does tie him to the killing. So this is probably one of the more famous bullets in existence. It is sometimes referred to as the magic bullet. I refer to it as Commission Exhibit 399, because thats the number that was assigned to it by the Warren Commission. It was fou