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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 24, 1997
CONTACT: THOM WILBORN
(202) 724-0088, EXT. 251
The Assassination Records Review Board, an independent Federal agency, today unanimously approved a Statement of Policy and Intent that takes the first steps in making the Abraham Zapruder film of the assassination of President Kennedy a part of the permanent JFK Collection at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in College Park, Maryland. The Review Board indicated that it intended to direct that the film become U.S. property on August 1, 1998 and would work closely with the U.S. Congress.
"By taking this action, the Review Board is attempting to insure the preservation of the original Zapruder film, guarantee its availability to the American people, and give the U.S. Congress a role in resolving the final disposition of the film," said Judge John R. Tunheim, Chairman of the Review Board and U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Minnesota. "The members of the Review Board believe it is important that the public have free and unfettered access to this film at a reasonable cost." The Review Board, in a five to nothing vote today, approved the Statement of Policy and Intent that states:
The Zapruder film is recognized as an assassination record within the meaning of the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992;The Review Board intends to work with Congress to exercise its authority under the JFK Act to direct that the film be transferred to the JFK Assassination Records Collection on August 1, 1998;
The Review Board will do all in its power to ensure that the best available copy of the Zapruder film will become available to the public at the lowest reasonable price; and
The Review Board will continue to work cooperatively with LMH Company to (a) make the best possible copy of the Zapruder film to be placed in NARA for scholarly and research uses, (b) to establish a base reference for the film through digitization, and (c) to conduct all appropriate tests to evaluate authenticity and to elicit historical and evidentiary evidence.
The 8 mm film taken by Abraham Zapruder on Nov. 22, 1963 is considered the best photographic record of the assassination of President Kennedy. It was purchased by Time-Life, Inc. immediately after the assassination and sold back to the family in 1975. The family placed the film in NARA custody in 1978, where it has been kept under stringent preservation conditions.
The Review Board was established by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which was signed into law by President George Bush. The five members of the Board were appointed by President Clinton, confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in on April 11, 1994. The law gives the Review Board the mandate and the authority to identify, secure and make available all records related to the assassination of President Kennedy. It is the responsibility of the Board to determine which records are to be made public immediately and which ones will have postponed release dates.
The Review Board is scheduled to hear expert testimony on issues under The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-526) related to the status and disposition of the original film taken of the assassination by amateur photographer Abraham Zapruder.
The Assassination Records Review Board is an independent federal agency responsible for the review and release of records related to the assassination of President Kennedy.
Event: Hearing
Date: April 2, 1997
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Archivist's Reception Room
National Archives
Washington, D.C.
The request reptedly comes in its 1996 Fiscal Request.
In email sent around to various researchers an interested parties, author Peter Dale Scott quotes the report as saying, on page 9: "Tens of thousands of other assassination records await review, however, and the process of identifying new records continues."
Dr. Scott says further: "Apparently one major site for further investigation is the Federal Records Center in Suitland, MD, repository for DIA and ONI records from the 1960s (pp. 35-36). The ARRB Report is polite about DOD compliance, yet makes it clear that the enormous task of identifying assassination records is far from complete (pp. 34-36)."
Those wishing to contact key congressonal representatives are urged to write:
The Honorable Fred Thompson
Senate Committee on Government Affairs
340 Dirkson Office Building
Washington DC 20519and
The Honorable Dan Burton
House Government Reform and Oversight Committee
2157 Rayburn Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Additionally, can find out who your Senators and Representatives are at this web site: http://www.georgemag.com/hfm/resources/index.html.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: THOM WILBORN
MARCH 5, 1997
(202) 724-0088, EXT. 251
Copies of the report are available upon request from the Review Board. Please submit your request in writing, e-mail or fax, or call the number listed above.
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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 1997
CONTACT: THOM WILBORN
(202) 724-0088, EXT. 251
The Assassination Records Review Board, an independent federal agency overseeing the review and release of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, announced today that it has acquired original records from James P. Hosty, Jr., a former FBI agent who was assigned to the investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination. Among the records received are notes that, according to Hosty, he wrote on the afternoon of November 22, 1963, during an interrogation of Oswald within hours of his arrest by the Dallas Police.
"These records donated by Mr. Hosty are a significant addition to the historical record of the assassination of President Kennedy," said Judge John R. Tunheim, Chair of the Board. "Notes from the Oswald interrogation are unique. No comparable papers have surfaced in the 33 years since the assassination. Each time we add a document, a film or a photograph to the record, we add another piece to the assassination puzzle."
Hosty was the FBI counter-intelligence agent assigned to the Oswald case prior to the assassination. After Oswald was arrested and in custody following the assassination, Hosty joined other federal and local law enforcement officials at the Dallas Police Department to question the suspect. He first reported that he had retained his notes from the Oswald interview in Assignment Oswald, the 1996 book he wrote on the assassination:
"My usual practice was to destroy handwritten notes once the report of any interview was finalized ... At that time [during his testimony before the Warren Commission in 1964] I truly believed that I had destroyed them . . . but several months after the Warren Report was released, I discovered the notes among my papers in my desk. Realizing their significance, I chose to hang on to them..."During a recent appearance before the Review Board, Hosty turned the notes and other records over to the Board for eventual inclusion in the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection at the National Archives. Other records that he donated include his original handwritten notes from a November 23, 1963 interview he conducted with Mrs. Ruth Paine, with whom Oswald's wife, Marina, was living at the time of the assassination. Oswald had allegedly stored a rifle in the Paine's garage in Irving, Texas. Paine told Hosty that she thought Oswald had been in the garage the night before the assassination, but she was unaware that Oswald owned a rifle.
Copies of Hosty's handwritten notes from the Oswald interrogation and his notes from the interview with Mrs. Paine are available from the Review Board. The Assassination Records Review Board was established by The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which was signed into law by President George Bush. The five members of the Board were appointed by President Clinton, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and sworn in on April 11, 1994. The law gives the Review Board the mandate and the authority to identify, secure, and make available all records related to the assassination of President Kennedy. It is the responsibility of the Board to determine which records are to be made public immediately and which ones will have postponed release dates.
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