Remembering JFK

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?? How JFK's death changed Dallas

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photos: Bettmann/Corbis via Getty Images

On Nov. 22, 1963, shots rang out in Dealey Plaza just as President John F. Kennedy's open limousine passed through. Dallas would never be the same, Axios Dallas' Michael Mooney writes. Flashback: Dallas in 1963 was a city "on the verge of a nervous breakdown," Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright, who was in algebra class at Woodrow Wilson High School when the president was killed, recently told the Dallas Morning News. Dallas was segregated and controlled by a powerful group of right-wing business and religious leaders. After the assassination, news coverage blamed the political climate in Dallas for the president's murder. Companies refused to do business in North Texas. The big picture: Dallas was known nationally as the "city of hate." The Dallas Citizens Council, the collection of oligarchs who ran Dallas at the time, quickly developed a plan to rehabilitate the city's image. The plan involved getting J. Erik Jonsson, the co-founder and chairman of Texas Instruments, elected as mayor. It was Jonsson who developed the plan to make Dallas a major air travel hub, which in turn led to an influx of corporate business and helped drive massive population growth. Despite all that, a brief moment in 1963 will continue to define and shape Dallas' legacy, for better and worse. Read the full story ...

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?️ 60 years ago today

Photo: AP Corporate Archives This is AP teletype copy from Nov. 22, 1963, reporting the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. An earlier bulletin, dictated to the Dallas bureau by AP photographer James "Ike" Altgens: "President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy. She cried, 'Oh, no!' The motorcade sped on." Go deeper: How AP covered the shots ... Living witnesses.

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RFK Jr. wants answers on JFK assassination

RKF Jr. takes a selfie at the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 14. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes the CIA had a role in assassinating his uncle, President John F. Kennedy — and that's part of the reason RFK Jr. is pushing his daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, for deputy CIA director. RFK Jr. has been telling people that Fox Kennedy — who was also his presidential campaign manager — would help get to the bottom of the JFK assassination, two Republican sources told Axios' Stef Kight and me. Why it matters: If Fox Kennedy were named deputy to John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick for CIA director, she'd be in a position to dig into what the CIA knows about the assassination — and could urge the release of documents. Podcaster Joe Rogan and others have been agitating for that. ? "The evidence is overwhelming that the CIA was involved in the murder and in the cover-up," Kennedy said last year about his uncle's death. One of the sources told us: "RFK believes that and wants to get to the bottom of it." Kennedy has also said there is "convincing" but "circumstantial" evidence that the CIA was involved in his father's death, as well. ? What we're watching: President-elect Trump feels indebted to RFK Jr. But there's real drama behind the scenes about whether Fox Kennedy is the right choice for the CIA's No. 2 job. Fox Kennedy worked as an undercover agent for the CIA for nearly a decade. Go deeper.

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New JFK records

President John F. Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally ride in a convertible in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, moments before the president was fatally wounded. Photo: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images

The FBI just discovered about 2,400 records tied to President Kennedy's assassination that were never provided to a board tasked with reviewing and disclosing the documents, Axios' Marc Caputo has learned. The still-secret records are contained in 14,000 pages of documents the FBI found in a review triggered by President Trump's Jan. 23 executive order demanding the release of all JFK assassination records. Why it matters: The discovery — 61 years after Kennedy was killed in Dallas — follows decades of government reluctance to release all documents related to the assassination, which fueled a mountain of conspiracy theories. ? The existence of the new documents was disclosed Friday to the White House, when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence submitted its plan to disclose the assassination records under Trump's order. The contents of the newly found records are closely held secrets. The three sources who relayed their existence to Axios said they hadn't seen the documents. But the discovery of thousands of records on one of the most scrutinized events in U.S. history is likely to raise questions about the procedures for vetting and releasing information across the entire government. "This is huge. It shows the FBI is taking this seriously," said Jefferson Morley, an expert on the assassination and vice president of the nonpartisan Mary Ferrell Foundation, the nation's largest source of online records of Kennedy's killing. He sued the U.S. government for more records. "The FBI is finally saying, 'Let's respond to the president's order,' instead of keeping the secrecy going," Morley said. ? Reality check: The remaining records to be disclosed — as well as the newly discovered tranche of 2,400 reports — are unlikely to definitively prove whether Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone-wolf assassin or was part of a broader conspiracy, experts say. ? Behind the scenes: Trump has regretted for years not releasing all of the JFK records in his first term, according to those who have discussed the matter with him. "PRESIDENT TRUMP IS ENDING THE ENDLESS DELAYS," a White House fact sheet issued Jan. 23 says: "President Trump promised during his campaign to release assassination records to give Americans the truth." ? What's next: Despite Trump's order, sources say, the various intelligence agencies with records of the assassination are still recommending redactions. "When POTUS hears about this stonewalling, he's gonna hit the roof," a White House official told Axios. "This is total Deep State bulls**t," said another. "Don't be surprised if all these records just suddenly wind up online," a Trump adviser said. "He wants to move on and call this a promise kept."