How to see the no longer ‘secret’ JFK assassination records

FORT WORTH, Texas — If you've ever wanted all of the hidden details surrounding the assassination of JFK 54 years ago, just make sure your internet connection is fast when more files finally see the light of day Thursday.

The release by The National Archives and Records Administration consists of 3,810 documents, including 441 formerly withheld in full and 3,369 documents formerly released but with portions redacted.

To get your hands on the files first you'll have to go to the National Archives website. Depending on the speed of your internet connection the download could take 10 minutes or more.

— Scroll down to the 'Files' section and click the blue hyperlink titled 'October 2017 release.' (There may be multiple blue hyperlinks with the corresponding title labeled as part 1, part 2 and so on. Previous releases have had as many as 18 parts, so getting all of the files may take a while.)

— The contents of each file will be inside a ZIP folder that you can open and access thousands of PDF files of paperwork regarding Kennedy's assassination.

— Each part will also contain a Microsoft Excel document containing the agency, original document date, origin source, title of the document, name of sender and recipients connected to each PDF file.

The documents were previously withheld in accordance with the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act with 88 percent of them released to the public since the late 1990s. The records being released now were previously identified as assassination records, but withheld in full or in part.

While the National Archives and Records Administration has not publicly commented about what the final 11 percent of secret documents contain, the record keepers have stated on their website that much of what will be released will be tangential to the assassination events.

With the release approaching, many wondered if it would be held up by national security or law enforcement agencies. If they provided President Donald Trump with reasons to keep the files under wraps the president could choose to prevent their release.

But on Saturday, President 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.'

President Trump followed that tweet up with another on Wednesday afternoon adding to the suspense around the release of the documents. 'The long anticipated release of the JFKFiles will take place tomorrow. So interesting!' he tweeted.

Trump's longtime friend and political adviser Roger Stone is also an avid conspiracy theorist who wrote a book about the claim that President Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's vice president, was involved in Kennedy's assassination.

Stone tweeted Saturday morning and again Monday that he urged Trump to release the classified documents.