John F Kennedy was assassinated nearly 54 years ago on November 22, 1963, during a presidential motorcade through Dallas, Texas.
The gunman behind the killing, Lee Harvey Oswald, was apprehended but the murder of the US President triggered decades of conspiracy theories about what happened.
Long held conspiracy theories include that the 46-year-old president’s killing was organised by the Mafia, by Cuba, or a cabal of rogue agents.
Others include the belief that Oswald did not act alone.
Today the US National Archive will publish over 3,000 previously classified FBI and CIA documents, shedding light on the investigations surrounding the assassination.
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The documents have been withheld under a 25-year-long deadline set by the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act in 1992, but US President Donald Trump is expected to give his final seal of approval on their release.
The National Archive said: “All documents withheld either in part or in full were authorised for withholding by the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), an independent temporary agency that was in existence from 1994 to 1998.
“The Act was signed by President Bush on October 26, 1992, thus the final release date is October 26, 2017.”
What is in the JFK files?
The JFK files consist of nearly 5 million pages of records and documents from the scrupulous investigations into the assassination.
Right now about 88 per cent of the documents already exist in the public domain, but a remaining 11 per cent of sensitive files will now see the light of day.
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JFK Files: President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963
Today’s 3,810 documents will consist of 441 fully withheld records and another 3,369 that were previously redacted.
According to the National Archives, approximately one per cent of the records will remain fully withheld due to their sensitive nature.
In fact there is still a slim possibility that any if not all of the files could be held back from release, hinging on Mr Trump’s decision.
Last week Mr Trump tweeted: “Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.”
Mr Trump further teased the files yesterday, when he said on Twitter he would allow for the “long blocked and classified” files to be opened.
JFK: The Assassination in pictures
Wed, November 23, 2016
John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy, commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
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President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline photographed just moments before Kennedy was assasinated. Nov 22, 1963.
In all likelihood, the files will contain no major revelations and will simply embellish the details of the assassination.
I think we can be pretty sure that, whatever emerges from these documents, the conspiracy theories will persist
The documents to be released on Thursday will likely focus on efforts by the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine what contact Oswald had with spies from Cuba and the former Soviet Union on a trip to Mexico City in September 1963, experts said.
Patrick Maney, a professor of history at Boston College, said: “There was a real concern that Oswald was maybe in league with the Soviet Union.”
“My students are really skeptical that Oswald was the lone assassin.
”It’s hard to get our minds around this, that someone like a loner, a loser, could on his own have murdered Kennedy and changed the course of world history. But that’s where the evidence is.”
READ MORE: TOP 5 JFK ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACIES
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JFK Files: The previously classified documents shed light on the assassination
Gerald Posner, the author of “Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK”, told CNN: “There’s going to be no smoking gun in there.
“Anybody who thinks this is going to turn the case on its head and suddenly show that there were three or four shooters at Dealey Plaza – it’s not the case.”
Dr Alex Goodall, a senior lecturer in international history at UCL, also argued that the files will only serve to fuel the imaginations of conspiracy theorists.
Gerald Posner, the author of “Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK”, told CNN: “There’s going to be no smoking gun in there.
“Anybody who thinks this is going to turn the case on its head and suddenly show that there were three or four shooters at Dealey Plaza – it’s not the case.”
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JFK Files: Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended for the murder of the John F Kennedy
Dr Alex Goodall, a senior lecturer in international history at UCL, also argued that the files will only serve to fuel the imaginations of conspiracy theorists.
He told Express.co.uk: “I think we can be pretty sure that, whatever emerges from these documents, the conspiracy theories will persist.
“Such theories are driven by the tremendous significance of Kennedy’s assassination, and the belief that the truth about it has been deliberately hidden from public eyes.
“Either this tranche of material will include nuggets of information that fuel the suspicions of the suspicious, or it’ll end up primarily of interest to historians.
“If it’s the latter, the conspiracy theorists will argue that the real story is yet to be uncovered.”